Colby Walden helps make day 'special'

Saturday

Sep 29, 2012 at 10:07 PM

Jeff Elliott

Jacksonville kick returner Colby Walden summed it up best when he said, "You've got to be special to play on special teams. That's why they call it special teams. Special players make special plays and I'm going to make those plays."

Walden backed up those words when, for the second week in a row, he returned a kickoff for what proved to be the winning points for the Dolphins. Walden's school record 99-yard return in the fourth quarter gave JU the lead for good in a 26-14 win in front of 3,323 at D. B. Milne Field on homecoming Saturday afternoon.

It was JU's 15th consecutive home win, the longest current streak among all FCS teams.

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A week ago, Walden's 85-yard return at Dayton with 83 seconds remaining in the game was the difference in JU's 21-17 win over the Flyers.

Walden's latest effort bettered the previous long return by a JU player, a 94-yarder by Tyrone Wright against Drake in 2001. Walden now has four of the five longest returns in JU history.

"Colby has a lot of heart. You can't deny his heart, his love of the game," JU coach Kerwin Bell said. "Kids that have a passion like that, they tend to make great plays because it means something special to them."

JU (4-1, 2-0 Pioneer League) had 364 yards of offense, but turned the ball over three times.

Kade Bell was 21-of-28 passing for 210 yards and a touchdown for JU, but had two interceptions and a fumble that ended drives at the 4-, 10- and 20-yard lines.

"In the first half, we had five or six red-zone opportunities and we only came up with one touchdown, that's very frustrating," Kade Bell said. "I put that on me because I'm supposed to be the leader of the offense. I'm glad [my teammates] had my back."

Jacksonville trailed 7-0 after the first quarter, but Frantz Caudio, a freshman who played at Fleming Island, caught a 15-yard pass from Bell for his first collegiate touchdown to tie the game at halftime .

JU took the lead with less than a minute left in the third quarter when Dylan Lynch converted a 34-yard field goal. Marist (2-3, 1-1) wiped out that lead on its next possession with a 75-yard, 9-play scoring drive.

Seconds later, Walden fielded the kickoff at the 1-yard line, raced up the middle of the field, jumped over a defender and ran down the sideline for the score. It was his fourth carer TD on a kickoff return, also a school record.

"I thought I could score on the opening kickoff [a 42-yard return]," Walden said. "The guy made a shoe-string tackle. I wasn't going to let that happen again. I said to myself, 'I'm going to make them pay for that, and they did.' "

The Dolphins added another score on an Eric Baker 37-yard run. Keith Dawson went out with a dislocated elbow.

JU's final points came on a safety when a bad center snap went through the end zone.

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